It has been recently announced by Boris Johnson, the UK’s Prime Minister that he intends to abolish all Covid-19 regulations, including the requirement to isolate after testing positive, in England from 24th February, in spite of around 60,000 new cases daily and around 200 deaths every day.

Here’s what experts around the world think of his plan.

France

Arnaud Fontanet, a senior epidemiologist at the Pasteur Institute and a member of the government’s scientific advisory council said measures such as mask wearing, home working and quarantine remained vital to slow the number of infections and keep hospital admissions down, saying “Allowing the virus a free run would be a fundamental error."

Germany

“I don’t see Germany going down the UK’s path quite so quickly,” said Johannes Knobloch, an infection prevention specialist at Hamburg’s University Medical Centre. Knobloch continues, “It strikes me as quite brave to lift all restrictions at the same time. I would have thought it possible to keep in place some measures that aren’t too troublesome or intrusive – such as mandatory mask-wearing on public transport – but would still slow down the dynamic of new infections.

“But then you need to bear in mind there are broader philosophical differences in our health system, with avoidance of death still playing a fundamental part in the German system, while Britain’s system places more emphasis on maintaining the ability to work.”

Spain

Prof Rafael Bengoa, a former World Health Organization health systems director who is now co-director of the Institute for Health and Strategy in Bilbao, said that while the lifting of restrictions in England would doubtless prove popular, it was premature.

“Because of our bias to normalcy, people want to believe it’s over, which is what politicians are saying,” said Bengoa. “But most of us in public health across Europe are saying that it’s not quite over and it’s not like the flu...and since this is not like the flu, and it’s quite serious and you can also have long Covid with this, why is it that one needs to precipitate the lifting of restrictions so fast?”

Italy

Italy has among the strictest Covid rules in Europe and scientists are perplexed by England’s plan to scrap quarantine rules for people who test positive for Covid-19, especially with the two countries still registering stubbornly high daily death rates. “These are political choices, not scientific ones,” said Roberto Burioni, a professor of microbiology and virology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan.

“We’ve never quarantined people who have the flu, but the flu doesn’t kill two or three hundred people a day.”

New Zealand

In New Zealand, the epidemiologist and public health expert Prof Michael Baker said the data on hospitalisations and deaths from Covid-19 in the UK told their own story.

“The numbers, I think, are screaming out a message [that] the pandemic response has been very poorly managed – the waste of lives, the excessive periods under lockdown and the flip-flopping policies.”

“The science is absolutely top – it’s just the policy translation has been shockingly poor. That’s one of the frustrating things. We’d normally look to the UK … and they have not given us the leadership we’d hope for.”

Australia

Stuart Turville, associate professor in the immunovirology and pathogenesis program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, points out that the primary concern is that Omicron would be replaced by another variant. “We planned for Delta and got Omicron... I have always said it is better to be vigilant and cautious.”

But he said: “there are always people in our community where vaccination is not an option – for example, because their vaccine response is not strong.” He added: “It’s very difficult to predict this virus, though. It has made a fool of many of us.”

Conclusion

Experts are now coming forward to talk about the latest news from the UK. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the UK Prime Minister has only seen Covid-19 as an inconvenience to his 'premiership.'

Abolishing all precautionary measures, because it is an inconvenience and there are more pressing matters can end in cases rising, unless we take control of our lives and use our common sense in the pandemic.

The level of protection from the vaccine primarily depends on the immunity. Protection also decreases once you've taken the vaccine, it doesn't increase, which means re-vaccination, and that's not an option for many.

World scientists don't agree with what is happening in the UK. For those people who deal with immunosuppressed issues, there is no indication from the world experts on how protected they may be, with scientists in Australia pointing out the vaccine may not work for everyone. It is not what the UK Prime Minister has said, as he asked us to 'roll up our sleeves' in the initial roll-out.

If the virus wasn't an inconvenience, it has become one. No forward-thinking Prime Minister who cares and whose concern is to protect, would take away all precautionary measures. All we can hope for, is one of his mandatory u-turns.

Please remember to 'hands, face, space.'

Source: https://www.theguardian.com